Monday, December 9, 2013

Movie Critique: Primer

Time travel has always been an exciting and interesting subject studied. What would actually happen when travelling back and forth in time is a whole different question altogether. Science fiction leaves that part to the imagination. Primer is a perfect example of a realistic representation of time travel in the simplest fashion.

Primer takes on the possibility of what might happen if one were to discover a way to travel back in time. Would we really see ourselves performing past actions? The creators of Primer think so. But with such a power what do they decide to do? They decide to become rich. It is a very greedy attitude to take on when something so amazing has been discovered. Perhaps it is best that no one does discover technology like this because of those reasons. Our society is so self-centered that on the discovery of a fantastic new technology, one would use it for personal gain. This film is truly realistic in the worst ways.

Another aspect that I appreciated seeing this film is the presence of realism. The directors did not dumb down the ideas presented of how exactly time travel works. This provides a great, intellectual experience that really seems to hit the core of what science fiction should be. It seems as though many science fiction films have brought down the level of intelligence in their films just to relate to a larger audience. Which is unfortunate because it takes away from the authenticity of what science fiction was founded upon. Additionally it kept true to how science works today. Time travel was discovered by accident. Which in today’s scientific world, many of our greatest discoveries have been by accident.

Finally, the moral ethics that ultimately cause the conflict in the film seem to be a very common in science fiction and in all movies for that matter. Perhaps it is the innate ideologies that we are born with or perhaps it is what makes a good movie. Maybe people just want to see other people do good in the world. There does seem to be an uneasy feeling that some people might get when watching a movie where the bad guys win. Ultimately good beating evil is what does make a good story. Or so we think.